This application claims the priority of German Patent Document 100 24 818.7, filed in Germany, May 19, 2000, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a system for controlling a motorcycle air bag.
It is known to provide an air bag for a motorcycle occupant in order to protect him, if required, from serious injury (German Patent Document DE 19720622 Axe2x80x94corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,231). However, the problem arises in this case that, when the occupant is unfavorably positioned, the inflating of the air bag may cause injury or even separate the occupant from the motorcycle.
It is an object of the invention to provide a system of the initially mentioned type in the case of which the described problem is at least reduced.
The invention achieves this object by providing a system for controlling a motorcycle air bag with respect to the sitting position of a motorcycle occupant, comprising a distance measuring device for measuring the distance of a motorcycle occupant with respect to the motorcycle, and an adaptation device for controlling a motorcycle air bag corresponding to said distance. At any time, the distance measuring device clearly supplies information concerning the motorcycle occupant""s momentary position. As a function of this position and particularly of the distance between the motorcycle and the motorcycle occupant, the controlling of the air bag takes place. As a result, injuries can be excluded during the inflating operation.
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,226, a seat occupation detecting system for a passenger car is known, in which an infrared sensor is arranged above the vehicle seat in the vehicle ceiling. The infrared sensor has a plurality of fields of view by means of which the relative position of a vehicle occupant with respect to the air bag is determined, so that the air bag can be correspondingly controlled during the triggering without injuring the occupant.
Further, an occupant detection system for passenger cars is known from German Patent Document DE 40 23 109, in which sensors are arranged in the steering wheel, the sun screen, the headrest and the ceiling. All these known systems have the disadvantage that, because of the arrangement above the occupant, it cannot be detected whether the occupant is bending forward and, for example, a back or shoulder region instead of the chest region is sensed.
Advantageous further developments of the invention have the object of determining the position of the motorcycle occupant from the front.
Further features of preferred embodiments are described herein and in the claims.